Whether it's Luigi Mangione's killing of the United Healthcare's CEO by shooting him in the back of the head, or the CEO of UnitedHealthcare murdering this kid by pricing his life-sustaining medication out of his reach.

But Mr. Mangione might deserve clemency -- if not legally, then at least morally. His victim, however, not so much.

His asthma attack probably came from the stress of not knowing how he was going to afford his next refill.

who made once affordable inhalers ($10-$15 each) unaffordable for the average person. I remember paying as little as $12 for an inhaler, but the price went up 500-600% some years ago when the pharmaceutical industry pushed congress to outlaw the old CFC inhalers so they would be able to jack up the price with new HFC inhalers, because they were technically a newly patented drug.

Big Pharma made a fortune on that one, while pretending they were the environmentally conscious good guys*, and they are still raking in the cash.


*The drug companies couldn't give a shit about the ozone. They saw an opportunity to make a lot of money and they took it.

Case in point, my uncle suffered from epilepsy. Because of it he couldn't go to school. The only time I saw my dad cry was when he told me how he and his sisters would get up each morning to leave for school, and Uncle Joe would be at the breakfast table trying to teach himself how to read and write.

We take so much for granted these days, because modern science has helped so many.

Besides, I had an easy answer to backslap him with.

Overpriced medicines and worse out of patent ones exit market and replacement generics don't enter the market. This can sometimes come from corrupt regulatory barriers or for simple greed due to extreme consolodiation in the pharmaceutical sector.
The other equally serious problem is profit extraction by health insurance companies causing delays and worse full denials.
Overpriced meds which get backdoor discounts which we cant get.

paid more than $100 at times -- with insurance. At the same time, three people I knew who were prescribed the same inhaler told me they each paid $3.00 for their inhalers. Two had gov't. insurance and one obtained his from the VA.

For years paid $58 for my inhalers, then the price suddenly soared to $98. Pharmacists never had any explanation -- Pharmas were dictating the prices. My current pharmacy provides a generic brand for $25.

No excuse for this young man's death.

Last edited Tue Jun 3, 2025, 09:08 AM - Edit history (1)

without insurance.

Like I had a CT scan.. The hospital bill for the scan was for $1,500. If I did not have insurance I would have been sued for that amount. But with the insurance the hospital was happy with the $150.00 that the insurance paid.

I get an asthma inhaler, before medicare and on my insurance I had to pay $375.00 per month as the insurance would not pay for it, but it is the same price for the non insured but my price that I pay to the pharmacy is $35.00 with medicare and medicare only pays $50 to the pharmacy.

If the hospitals and pharmacies are happy with what is paid to them when insurance is paying it, why not when an individual is paying it?

If I was a black man and went to buy a burger and was told that it was $15 and I paid it and a white man was next in line with the same order and he only had to pay $2.50 there would be a disturbance.

They pay a contracted amount for drugs and medical care for their subscribers. If you don’t have insurance, you pay the full cost (and then some). The people without insurance are really screwed.

Says it all❗

a very low rate and hope the insurance company will indeed pay that amount in a few months (or longer), but will not allow anyone paying cash the same amount. They have no problem charging someone the high amount knowing that they will sell the bill to a collection agency for the same amount that they charge the insurance companies.

But a contract with an insurance company means a lot of guaranteed payments, versus a lot of uncollectible bills for uninsured people. So the actual cost of providing care is less because they didn't have to chase payments (and write-off quite a few). So insurance companies have a negotiating advantage because medical providers need them to survive.

Because of that, they may cut costs to the bare bones needed to meet the profit margin, or perhaps below - and expect to make it up from those who don't have negotiating power.

It’s allowed because the system is rigged in favor of corporations and the wealthy. It’s been corrupted and works against the people. Which is why they fought so hard to keep health care privatized, and why they want to get rid of Medicare.

carefully, the "fine print" comes into view and the discount is offered only to those with "private" or "commercial" insurance plans -- not folks on Medicare. Everyone should try to read that fine print that's at the bottom of your TV screen.

pre-existing condition of having asthma. Paid for everything out of pocket. We are the only "developed" country that treats its citizens like we do.

But not USA, especially under Trump’s leadership.

My wife has had even worse problems. She once had an aptly named COBRA plan reach its end in the midst of chemo. It was terrifying. The pharmaceutical bills alone were staggering, there's no way we could have paid them. Thankfully she was accepted to our state's "high risk" insurance pool at the very last possible minute but it seemed we had to fight for that.

I actually don't remember a lot. Each day brought a new horror. We escaped foreclosure on our home by a couple of days at the same time we were worrying about my wife's frightfully low blood cell counts as she was taking massive amounts of antibiotics for an infection on her arm.

Civilized nations have universal health care. We are not a civilized nation.

How do the insurance companies get away with this?

It should be criminal but we all shrug and say "That's just the way it is." No it isn't, or at least it didn't used to be this way. The insurance companies of this country have patiently created this monster over the last 60 years. None of us can individually stand up to the combined power of the medical insurance industry with their many advantages.

So horrible!

For those that like to read an article (like myself) with potentially more/better info on this specific individual's example, here you are:

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/asthma-death-prescription-price-pharmacy-lawsuit-rcna210075

here in NY.

worked for one of the big Pharmas. She was incredibly well paid to go around and (her words) "knock doctors in the head if they're not prescribing our drugs." There have been numerous investigative TV segments about how the pharmas reward doctors with golfing vacations or cruises if they meet a certain prescribing goal.

I nearly died from lack of health insurance, that did nothing to garner understanding from our politicians either. I have skin in the game just like Cole.

Progressive Dems once sung the praises of universal health care on a regular basis. I don’t hear it much any longer. Perhaps I’m just reading the wrong publications. Healthcare for all is an obvious, fundamental pillar for any restructuring of the democratic platform when we dethrone the TACO DICK-tator.

Of course, people like Joe Biden ran ads about how they wanted to dismantle "Obamacare".

Democrats seem incapable of just adopting ideas of the left that are popular and not throwing them all out.

so people can get with their doctors and arrange something else instead of the higher paid drugs/prescriptions. Have them on a 90 day grace period.

Just sayin’

OMG. This is so tragic! What a beautiful young man. I'm on the low part of the totem pole when it comes to economic status, but I myself would have found that $500 for him. United Healthcare. GD it! There's you a place to protest at. Has anyone ever protested against UHC? There's a got to be a law to prevent this from happening and it should be named for this young man.